Good Work Reaps Praise, Raise For Schools Chief

SUFFIELD — Following its glowing evaluation of Superintendent of Schools Bruce Douglas, the board of education granted him a 4 percent raise.

``We think he's doing an excellent job, so we gave him the maximum raise we had budgeted for this year,'' said board Chairman Johanne Presser Wednesday.

The raise brings Douglas' annual salary to about $99,000.

Presser said the evaluation, done during a closed meeting Tuesday night, covered a wide range of Douglas' responsibilities, such as curriculum, administration and community relations.

``He scored outstanding in most and good in some. Everyone was pleased [although] it's been a tough year with a lot going on,'' Presser added.

Presser noted improvement in reading programs, expanding the middle school foreign languages and a start in the high school technology plan, all goals Douglas and the board had agreed he would work on last year. Presser also said she was impressed with the efforts led by Douglas to train teachers on instructing students to do research using computers and multimedia.

``We had a really excellent evaluation of him in every single category,'' said Daniel MacKinnon, chairman of the board's budget and goals committees.

MacKinnon said that despite the raise, Douglas' salary lags behind that of many school superintendents.

``He's still the lowest or second lowest superintendent among the Hartford area's 32 municipalities,'' MacKinnon said.

``The schools are doing very well under his leadership,'' said board member Elaine C. O'Brien, who is also town clerk. ``We've been able to build the school district back up bit by bit'' after some difficult years brought on by the poor economy of a decade ago.

MacKinnon said it's not Douglas' fault, but he felt the system is still short on technical education, which serves about 80 students, mostly those who don't plan to go to college.

``I think the program is not very good. The auto mechanics and computer-aided design classes are 10 years behind'' the current technology, and there's a shortage of staff, he said. He expects that there will be $100,000 more in the 1999-2000 budget for technical education, MacKinnon said.

``It ought to be a tough program, teaching skills they can sell when they get out of high school. Our job is to educate everybody,'' MacKinnon said.

One problem Douglas has had to face, Presser said, is that the McAlister Middle School, built in 1939, ``is holding us back.''